Communications traffic at network edges is increasing over time due to the rising demand for a range of high-bandwidth services by business and residential customers. This rising demand places an increasing requirement on access networks to deliver those services. There is interest in deploying high-capacity optical access networks, such as Passive Optical Networks (PON), to replace copper access networks.
In open markets, such as Europe, an important requirement is that a subscriber should be able to freely choose an operator network to supply their communication services. This is called Local Loop Unbundling. A Central Office connects to the access network and also connects to multiple operator networks. While this freedom of selecting an operator network is desirable for a user, it poses a problem for network equipment at the Central Office as traffic from the access network must be able to connect to one of a set of operator networks, as required by a subscriber.